Tomasz Kolodziejak, director of international aff airs, led

student clubs in the multicul-tural parade Monday in honor of SJSU’s International Week.

Kolodziejak said SJSU was ranked the sixth most diverse campus in the western United States.

Th e march took place in front of University House, the house of Associated Students, and con-

tinued to the Tommie Smith and John Carlos Statue, then to the Cesar Chavez Memorial Arch, and ended at the Dining Com-mons where students were pre-pared a Greek dish.

Kolodziejak said the parade is the opening ceremony for Inter-national Week.

“We are trying to encour-age diversity among students,” Kolodziejak said. “Th is is the fi rst year we have ever done a parade,

A San Jose pastor said he is planning a crusade to end

gang violence in San Jose.SJSU alumnus Scott Wagers

said he has been working with the homeless for 20 years and has been a pastor for 12 years.

He said he now wants a new challenge.

Freshman pre-nursing ma-jor Sarah Moore said she heard Wagers speak at the “Poverty Under the Stars” event on cam-pus Th ursday and said he was inspirational.

“He was so powerful,” Moore said. “He made me feel powerful — like I could do something or start change.”

Wagers said he has a mas-ter’s degree in sociology from SJSU.

He said he founded the Community Homeless Alli-ance Ministry in 1997, which provided shelter for homeless families in collaboration with the First Christian Church near Hugh Gillis Hall.

Sandy Perry, outreach direc-tor of the new CHAM Deliver-ance Ministry, said that in the past, the Community Home-less Alliance Ministry used to house 15 homeless families, but it cut down to fi ve families in 2007.

“We’re not just a homeless ministry now, and we haven’t been for a few years,” Wagers said. “I call it a frontline minis-try. Homelessness is a frontline issue. Right now, we want to

take on gangs and just poverty in general.”

He said the new church is near Roosevelt Park in San Jose and is called CHAM Deliver-ance Ministry.

He said the key word is “de-liverance,” and said he means deliverance from drugs and alcohol, from gangs and from abuse.

Wagers said poverty is one of the leading causes of gang affi liation.

“I’ve been in this work for 20 years now, and I can say poverty creates horrifi c condi-tions and that in turn breeds

mentalities — like gang men-tality,” he said.

Wagers said the minis-try has been known as a safe, diverse environment where people do not have to suff er judgment.

He said two rival biker groups, the Mongols and Hell’s Angels, helped the ministry by giving gifts to homeless peo-ple.

“One of the fi rst times I was preaching, I remember a fi ght broke out in the pews between gang members when I was a young pastor,” he said.

Several sociology classes

have worked with Wagers and the California Homeless Alli-ance Ministry, sociology As-sociate Professor Scott Myers-Lipton said.

He said Wagers started a group called Student Homeless Alliance at SJSU in 1991.

He said after Wagers gradu-ated, the Student Homeless Al-liance was forgotten until four years ago.

“We brought people to the university, homeless people, and they would talk with the students,” Wagers said. “Th en

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• President Obama bows to Japanese Emperor

• Students parade through campus Monday in celebration of International Week

• Slideshow: SJSU men’s basketball team opens season with win

Spartan Daily Blogs

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Serving San José State University since 1934

TuesdayNovember 17, 2009Volume 133, Issue 40

SPORTS OPINION A&EMen’s basketball team

blows out William JessupPage 5

Reflecting on life’s little things

Page 7

Gore and action highlight new Call of Duty game

Page 3

] ] ]

k

Dick Tomey to resign

Web site can help students choose

professors

SJSU’s C.J. Webster blocks Tevin Hurd during the Spartans’ win over William Jessup. See a slideshow at spartandailyphoto.com.

[ Hank Drew / Spartan Daily ]

Pastor Scott Wagers outside Clark Hall during “Poverty Under the Stars” on Thursday.

[ Michelle Gachet / Spartan Daily ]

SJSU alumnus aims to curb gang violenceBy Jill AbellStaff Writer

By Jhenene LouisStaff Writer

On Monday, Spartan football head coach Dick Tomey an-

nounced that after this season, he will retire from coaching at SJSU.

“Th e only reason we are doing this today is for San Jose State to be able to hire a new coach in a timely fashion, unlike they did before,” Tomey said.

Athletic director Tom Bowen said he doesn’t have anybody in mind to fi ll the coaching vacancy and they are open to anybody tak-ing over.

“We are staying completely wide open and open-minded, and we want see who really wants to come

be here,” Bowen said.He said that he has not yet start-

ed looking for a new coach.“Today is Dick Tomey’s day,”

Bowen said. “Today is to celebrate Dick Tomey, and what he has done and his accomplishments.”

Tomey said he does not think his decision will have an eff ect on recruiting.

“If you got a 71-year-old coach, the recruits are not necessarily com-ing for the head coach anyways,” Tomey said. “Because they think, ‘He is too damn old,’ and they are not sure if he is going to stay and coach them for fi ve years anyways.

SJSU students may have a new friend when its time to regis-

ter for classes for the Spring 2010 semester.

Students can use the Web site CampusBuddy to learn how each professor grades as well as a way to communicate with other stu-dents from the same university, said Mike Moradian, president of CampusBuddy.

“Choosing the professor is just as important a decision as choos-ing the class you want to take,” he said.

Moradian said CampusBuddy allows students to access more than professor ratings.

“What we’re aiming for is to use grade information to draw students in,” he said.

According to the Cam-pusBuddy Web site, students will need to either link their Facebook accounts to the Web site or register to see the content.

Junior kinesiology major Nhan Nguyen said he thinks the Web site can be helpful.

“A lot of people are concerned with the classes they take,” he said. “Th ey don’t want to take a class with a professor a lot of peo-ple aren’t sure with.”

Moradian said CampusBuddy has grade information from about 250 colleges and universities such as SJSU, UCLA and UC Berke-ley.

He said CampusBuddy has Californian roots.

“We started in California,” he

Parade starts International

Week

By Husain SumraStaff Writer

Students march during the International Parade carry-ing fl ags representing countries around from the world Monday.

[ Joe Proudman / Spartan Daily ]

[ Michelle Gachet / Spartan Daily ]

See BUDDY, Page 8

See PASTOR, Page 4

See PARADE, Page 4

See TOMEY, Page 6

By Ryan BuchanSenior Staff Writer

Spartan Daily2[ ]NEWS Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Th irty SJSU students will be spending a portion of their win-ter break in China after a Chi-nese offi cial followed through with a promise she made to President Jon Whitmore after visiting SJSU.

Chinese State Councilor Mme. Liu Yandong agreed to set up a trip for SJSU students to go to China after she visited the campus on April 21.

“It’s a global world, so to

learn about China is to learn about one of the leading coun-tries in the world, along with the United States,” said Mark Novak, associate vice president for international and extended studies.

She came to talk with univer-sity offi cials about U.S-China relations regarding education, technology and science.

“She was so pleased with the programs here that we have for Chinese students and Chi-nese professionals that she ap-proached the president after

her visit and said she would like to off er a special opportu-nity to our students,” Novak said.

Shortly after she visited, Novak said he received a letter from the Chinese Consulate in-forming him that the trip was scheduled to take place during SJSU’s winter break.

Every college on campus chose four students to attend the trip using various methods, such as interviewing students and making potential candi-dates write essays, Novak said.

Participants will leave on Dec. 28, and will remain in China until Jan. 15.

Th e 30 SJSU students will be accompanied by 50 students from Cornell University.

Students will learn about Chinese culture, art, history and literature by visiting Beijing and Shanghai, Novak said.

He said students will also attend Zhejiang University in Hangzhou.

At the university, students will be introduced to Chinese history and culture through a

series of lectures and will learn a small amount of the Chinese language, Novak said.

“It’s an extraordinary op-portunity to learn about that country and to share experienc-es with Chinese colleagues and with one another,” he said.

Whitmore said the trip will benefi t students by allow-ing them to learn from one another.

“It’s a wonderful opportu-nity for students from mul-tiple disciplines to be aff ord-ed the opportunity to spend

signifi cant time in China learn-ing,” Whitmore said.

Students will only have to pay for half the price of airfare and the price of the Chinese visa. All other expenses on the trip will be paid for by the Chi-nese government.

“It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend a high-ranking university for an im-mersion program in Chinese culture where the Chinese gov-ernment will be treating our students like honored guests,” Novak said.

By Kyle SzymanskiStaff Writer

SJSU students heading to China during winter break

John Le Sophomore, Business

Amelia Robinson Senior, Nutrition

Cecilia WongJunior, Nursing

Marc Mayo Senior, Corporate Financial Management

Asha Sadhan Sophomore, Microbiology

Sean SampsonFreshman, Mechanical Engineering

CampusVoices In celebration of International Week, how has going to school on a diverse campus affected you?

Feature and Photos by Jennifer Hadley

Going to a diverse campus such as San Jose State defi nitely has opened my eyes and my perspective to a whole new world of different perspectives. I have a lot of diverse groups of friends, and through that I got exposed to different cultures (and) languages.

It’s helped me see how different cultures are and not just be associated with white people. It helps you see how everyone is created equal and seeing how many different diversities there are going on, on campus.

Well I came from a very Asian-based high school. It was 85 percent Asian, so I wasn’t exposed to any different kind of different cultures. But going to San Jose State, there’s lots of different ethnicities. So I made a lot of different friends with different cultures, and it’s really exposed my experience to different people.

Going to a diverse school has given me a positive experience, because I was exposed to different cultures and with that, it defi nitely prepares me to work with any diverse company.

First of all, I don’t think this is a diverse campus. How did you come up with the idea that it’s diverse? Most of the people I see are white, Indian and some Asians. So I don’t see Europeans around, maybe just a little bit.

It’s allowed me to meet new people that I might not have met otherwise, just in different cultures and coming from different backgrounds.

“Call of Duty: Modern War-fare 2,” the latest installment in the popular “Call of Duty” series, was fi nally released to the video gaming masses Nov. 10th for PC, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Published by Activision and developed by Infi nity Ward, “Modern Warfare 2” is one of the most hyped video games of all time, and is arguably the biggest launch in video game and enter-tainment history.

So has it lived up to all tre-mendous hype?

Before answering that ques-tion, I have to say I am a newcom-er to the “Call of Duty” series.

I have played other fi rst-per-son shooters such as “Medal of Honor,” “Counter Strike,” “Un-real” and “Halo.”

“Modern Warfare 2” is my fi rst ever “Call of Duty” experience.

Th e single-player campaign mode is probably the most epic and intense roller coaster ride I’ve had the pleasure of playing through in a fi rst-person shooter to date.

I felt like I was fi ghting in an actual warzone with all the chaos that is thrown right in my face from the beginning — shooting down terrorists with my artifi cial intelligence comrades, bullets whizzing past and massive explo-sions every few seconds.

Th is game is defi nitely not for the faint of heart when it comes to sheer in-your-face intensity.

Speaking of intensity, there is

one mission in particular that has drawn a lot of controversy.

Th e mission, “No Russian,” has one of the main American soldiers you play as go under-cover as a Russian terrorist in a Russian airport, killing literally hundreds of innocent civilians in order to get close the main an-tagonist you’re hunting.

Th e game off ers those off end-ed by the concept of shooting innocent, unarmed people the option to skip this mission.

It shows how developer Infi n-ity Ward took players’ sensitivity into account, so they could enjoy the rest of the game.

Th e “Call of Duty” series has always been praised for its cine-matic appeal, and “Modern War-fare 2” is no diff erent.

Th e visuals in “Modern War-fare 2” are simply astounding in realism and cinematic scope.

Th e character models and en-vironments are realistically de-tailed to the point that it’s almost unsett ling.

One eff ect Infi nity Ward added is blood splatt ering on the TV screen when you’re shot by enemies, obscuring your vision of the batt lefi eld. Th is adds to the overall intensity of not knowing what’s going to happen next.

Th e audio is no slouch, either. Authentic weapon fi re, explo-sion sound eff ects, impressive nonplayer character voice work and an epic score done by famed Hollywood composer Hans Zimmer adds to the already im-mersive experience of “Modern Warfare 2.”

One of the main draws of the “Modern Warfare” series has been its offl ine and online multi-player mode.

“Modern Warfare 2’s” robust multiplayer mode gives you a ton of options to mess around with.

Th ere is the standard death-match mode, in which whoever gets the most kills wins, as well as diff erent spins on capture the fl ag and king of the hill.

Knowing how to maneuver around the diff erent maps, your

weaponry and your cooperation with other players is of strategic importance when it comes to multiplayer.

In the fi rst “Modern Warfare,” players were able to choose perks that would provide slight advan-tages in multiplayer batt les, such as higher velocity bullets that can pierce through walls and UAV

jammers that make you invisible to radar.

In “Modern Warfare 2,” Infi n-ity Ward added more of these, along with “kill spree” eff ects from the last game, which can end games quickly once you start racking up kills to call up tanks, helicopters, and if you’re really good, a nuke to blow up the en-

tire map — victory.“Modern Warfare 2” can sup-

port up to four players offl ine and between two -18 players online.

A new mode to “Modern Warfare 2” is Spec-Ops, where the player goes through 23 mis-sions (some taken from the sin-gle player campaign) either solo or co-op.

Th is mode is a great addition to a stellar game.

If I have one complaint about “Modern Warfare 2,” it would involve the single-player campaign.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved the campaign, since it was so ac-tion-packed and fi lled with many memorable moments, such as “Cliffh anger,” a snow-based mis-sion that begins with your char-acter climbing up a snow-capped mountain and ending with a thrilling snowmobile chase.

I found the campaign to be too short. I fi nished it in about fi ve hours on regular diffi cul-ty, and I didn’t really have any emotional connections with the characters throughout the convoluted story.

I also couldn’t take in much visual scenery or explore the environments in each mission, since I had to go from one objec-tive to the next in a linear fashion with all the chaos that was hap-pening on-screen.

It just felt like too much all at once — although this was probably intentional, since it is a war game.

“Modern Warfare 2” is a fan-tastic fi rst-person shooter, possi-bly one of the best.

I’ll be playing well into next year. It is a great addition to any video game library.

A gloriousA glorious

return return

for ‘Modern for ‘Modern

Warfare’ Warfare’

By Marcos BlancoStaff Writer

Video Gameeview:R

Italian opera adds twist to classic fairy tale

Having heard the Disney version of the Cinderella story many times, I was skeptical about what the “La Cenerentola,” an Italian op-era of Cinderella, would bring to the story.

To my surprise, I was delighted by the overwhelmingly talented singers and orchestra that made the story spring to life.

Opera San Jose presented “La Cenerentola,” an Italian op-era of the fairy tale Cinderella, held at the California Th eatre on Saturday night.

Th e only way I was able to understand what each character was saying was by glancing up at a large screen that displayed the transla-tions for the opera in English.

Th e screen was helpful to understand the snide comments, but I felt the subtitle screen took away from the opera, since my eyes were distracted looking back and forth at the screen and the characters.

Th e theater lights dimmed and the opera began, as a frail woman named Cinderella stood onstage in a patched skirt. She is hunched over as she irons her master’s clothing. Her eyes looked up and gazed into the audience as she parted her lips to sing.

Her immaculate voice fi lled the theater as she sang an Italian opera song about a prince looking for a bride.

Th e music enhanced the mood of the opera and added drama. Th e music was conducted by Anthony Quartuccio, who com-

memorated his sixth assignment with Opera San Jose.

Diff erent emotions were brought to the familiar tale through the music.

Th ough I don’t understand Italian, the music helped me under-stand the emotions of the characters, so I could understand what they were feeling without even knowing what they were saying.

Stringed instruments complemented the high musical notes sung by the characters. Each actor’s ability to carry a note almost took my breath away, and my ears stung with the length of notes held in such a light airy tone carrying emotion throughout the theater.

Cinderella’s bratt y stepsisters pranced onstage in brightly colored and elaborate dresses as they sang about their beauty and ordered Cinderella around as she frantically tended to their every need.

Th e stepsisters had the best costumes of the night, with an elaborate hairdo that consisted of mounds of hair sitt ing atop each of their heads. Th eir wardrobe was full of bright pastels and crisp white ruffl es as each outfi t looked like it was made for an adult-sized 12-year-old girl.

Th e stepsisters sported bright blue eyeshadow and exaggerated eyebrows that emphasized their unfortunate looks.

Th e comedic satire of the play updated the classic Cinderella story and the snide remarks and humor added a much-needed lift to the familiar story.

Th e opera added a new twist to the story by creating a fake prince to lure the stepsisters away, so the true prince could fi nd his Cinderella.

A handsome squire dressed in a dapper, sky-blue coat and sash captivated the hearts of the stepsisters as they fumbled for the prince’s hand in marriage.

Th e true prince, a tall, dark and handsome man dressed as a squire, is enamored by the young Cinderella, who fell in love with the prince, not knowing about his power or wealth.

His deep voice tones carried through-out the theater as he expressed his undying love for Cinderella.

Cinderella was played by Betany Coffl and, who has been a part of Opera San Jose for three other plays and has acted in opera halls across the country.

Th e prince, played by Michael Dailey, has been in numerous plays by Opera San Jose as well as opera halls and festivals nationwide.

Opera San Jose’s “La Cenerentola” was a cultural experience that brought new insight into a popular fairy tale.

By Angela MarinoStaff Writer

A screenshot from the video game “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.”

[ Photo courtesy of Modern Warfare 2 Official Web site ]

[ Photo courtesy of Opera San Jose ]

“La Cenerentola” was performed at California Theatre on Saturday evening.

Operaeview:R

3Spartan DailyTuesday, November 17, 2009 [ ]A&E

Spartan Daily4[ ]NEWS Tuesday, November 17, 2009

but I hope for a great turnout.”Kolodziejak said the parade’s

purpose was to get students excited about the events As-sociated Students has planned throughout the week.

“Th e highlights of the week will be when Dean (Mark) No-vak will give a couple of lectures to students,” Kolodziejak said. “On Th ursday, the global stud-ies club will sponsor the intern-ships and jobs fair.”

Kolodziejak said when he started at SJSU as an interna-tional student, he was surprised about how diverse the SJSU campus was.

“What I love about the San Jose area is that there are so many people from diff er-ent backgrounds,” Kolodziejak said. “I thought by starting the parade we could take it further, adding more diversity to the campus, because the main goal of this event is to unite.”

Ryan Wu, a senior global studies major and member of the Chinese Student Associa-tion, said he was excited to wear clothing that represented his Chinese culture.

“Our clothing and fashion styles make a statement about who we are and also our cul-ture,” Wu said. “I think it’s re-ally awesome that everyone can come out and represent their diff erent backgrounds simply by the clothes they wear.”

Hyon Chu Yi-Baker, direc-tor of the Mosaic Cross Cultur-al Center, said it is natural that the center gets involved with International Week, because it promotes and has a lot of the same beliefs about diversity on campus.

“We are all coming together for the same cause, whether you’re African-American or Korean,” Chu Yi-Baker said. “I think a lot of times in our American culture, everyone

wants to fi t in. Many people who immigrate to this country have been told that it’s not OK within our cultures to celebrate where we come from.

“When you come here to America, the message is you need to become an American, but the question is, what is American?”

Chu Yi-Baker said that when she moved to America, she was told that she would not be able to speak Korean.

“I felt like I lost my language and my customs,” Chu Yi-Bak-er said. “I was not able to learn about my background, because I needed to assimilate. Today is an affi rmation of where you come from.”

Amy Lin, a sophomore in-terior design major, said she is on exchange from New Zealand and is excited to meet some people who are from the Inter-

national House.“I have never experienced

anything like this before,” Lin said. “It’s truly amazing how spirited SJSU is, and I can’t wait to go back home and share my story.”

Helen Stevens, director of international programs and ser-vices, said she believes that an international student or a do-mestic student does not have a real education unless they have knowledge of the world.

“We have 2,600 internation-al students, which is the largest international student number of any university in the Un-tied States — and that’s at the master’s degree level,” she said. “So we really are very distin-guished.

“In this particular event, the international students illustrate what they bring to the campus. Th ey bring the world.”

PARADEFrom Page 1

we would take the students and the homeless people to City Hall to testify — to stand in front of the mayor and talk.”

Conversion ExperienceWagers said he had a spiritu-

al awakening in Louisiana when he was 21 years old.

“I felt like I needed a change,” he said. “All my family was in the South, Arkansas and Louisiana. I felt like I needed a change, and I had these pre-monitions that I would move. I would tell my friends that I would move to California.”

He said his friends were in disbelief.

“I wasn’t like a little church boy, but I had deep spiritual roots, and I felt like God was changing my life,” Wagers said.

He said he moved to Califor-nia in 1987 to start his spiritual journey.

“I wasn’t running from some-thing,” Wagers said. “I was run-ning to something.”

He said he knew he was go-

ing to help homeless people.“It was an incredible thing,

because I was young, and I thought I was a real cool guy,” he said. “I played football. I was a bodybuilder.”

California JourneyHe said that when he fi rst

came to California, he found work as a personal trainer at Stanford University and a YMCA in Palo Alto a year be-fore he enrolled at SJSU.

“I had a bunch of jobs, es-tablished residency and went to SJSU in early 1989,” Wagers said.

He said that after SJSU, he attended UC Berkeley for his Graduate Th eological Union to become a pastor and completed a part of his degree at Yale Uni-versity.

He said he graduated in 1997 with a master’s degree in theology and then started the Community Homeless Alliance Ministry.

“Scott (Wagers) has always put his beliefs and vision ahead of his own personal comfort,” said Tim Fitzgerald, author of “Wawona Brotherhood: San

Jose State Campus Revolt” and a western philosophy major. “Th at’s what I fi nd so attractive about his take on the ministry — he believes in hands-on in-volvement.”

Fitzgerald said he was having diffi culty with housing, which caused him to fi nd Wagers at the First Christian Church.

Fitzgerald said Wagers’ ideas of social activism matched his own, so he became a member of Wager’s ministry.

“I’ve never been a real churchgoer,” he said.

Wagers said one of his heroes is Martin Luther King Jr., be-cause he was also a pastor and fought to not only challenge ra-cial injustice, but he fought for equality in social and economic justice for all people.

“As a pastor, you have to re-spect all people,” he said. “You have to love people. I love peo-ple. I don’t judge people. Th at’s one of the strengths I know I have. I meet people who have done bad things, and I meet people that have had bad cir-cumstances, but I don’t judge people.”

PASTORFrom Page 1

Ann Lucas, chair of the justice studies department and SJSU fac-ulty member for nine years, died Oct. 22 at age 47.

“What I remember most about her is her smile,” said Asso-ciate Professor Mark Correia, who said Lucas died of ovarian cancer at her home in Salinas. “I’m going to miss her laugh. She was natu-rally just a warm-hearted person, but at the same time she was very professional.”

Lucas earned three degrees from UC Berkeley a bachelor’s degree in legal studies, a Doctor of Laws degree and a Ph.D. in ju-risprudence and legal policy.

“Being department chair is a hard thing,” said Correia, who is a graduate coordinator in jus-tice studies. “She constantly had to make hard decisions with the risk of people not liking her, but she always handled situations like that with a lot of grace.”

In Lucas’ fi rst year at SJSU in 2000, she was an assistant admin-istration of justice professor.

She was also an assistant pro-fessor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of El Paso from January 1998 to May 2000, and was also the interim director of the women studies program at the University of Texas.

Lucas was the SJSU depart-ment chair of justice studies for the 2008-09 year.

Correia said Lucas acted as a mentor to him.

“When I fi rst came to SJSU fi ve years ago, Ann and I were of-fi ce mates,” Correia said. “From that point on we had a really good relationship. We just clicked, but

at the same time, in our depart-ment meetings we were not afraid to oppose each other.”

Th ough Correia said he would get into heated debates with Lu-cas, he said she had the ability to separate professional and personal matters of discussion.

“After the meetings were over, she would come in my offi ce, and we would just talk and laugh,” Correia said.

Gilbert Villareal, justice studies department coordinator, said Lu-cas was open with her students.

“She was just really open-minded,” Villareal said. “She lis-tened to students really well. If you went to talk to her, she was easy to talk to, which is probably the lawyer side of her.”

Villareal said he recalls a time he was having trouble with his younger brother, and Lucas was there for him with legal advice and emotional support.

“She wasn’t just an associate,” Villareal said. “She was a friend.”

He said she was a good mentor for women and that Lucas deeply believed in women’s rights.

Nikki Gutierrez, a justice studies resource analyst, said time spent with Lucas was not all

work.“We would laugh together all

the time, and go have lunch and write each other funny e-mails,” Gutierrez said. “She tried to get me and my boyfriend to get a dog, because she is big dog lover.”

Gutierrez and Villareal said they decided to make a book of remembrances for Lucas to be kept outside the justice studies department.

Students wrote messages and poems and stated their goodbyes to Lucas, they said.

“I have not read the book yet, because I’m afraid if I do I might just break down, since I have not written my message yet,” Gutier-rez said.

Justice studies major Mo-hammad Guptus said he re-members going into her offi ce where she welcomed him with a smile.

“I had an issue with drop-ping one of my classes, and even though she signed off on it, she was very interested to know if I was OK, and what was going on with me,” Guptus said.

Mark Correia said Lucas also had a great taste of music.

“She loved Green Day,” Cor-reia said. “Th at was her favorite band. She loved rock. At the fac-ulty mixer, I volunteered to do the music, and that was the group she really wanted to hear — and also Th e Clash. Other faculty mem-bers looked at us kind of weird for our taste of music, but that’s one of the many memories I have of her.”

Lucas’ memorial service will be from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday at East of Eden Events Banquet Hall at 150 Mar Vista Ave. in Monterey.

Tomasz Kolodziejak, director of intercultural affairs and event organizer, speaks during the International Parade on Monday.

By Jhenene LouisStaff Writer

[ Michelle Gachet / Spartan Daily ]

Late department chair remembered for professionalism and humor

Ann Lucas

In his fi rst game playing col-legiate basketball, forward Chris Jones had no trouble fi nding a rhythm.

He scored 13 points and made more than 70 percent of his shots, aiding the Spartans in a 89-63 vic-tory over the William Jessup War-riors Monday night at the Event Center.

“Chris is a good player, and that is why he was in our starting line-up,” head coach George Nessman said. “I know for a lot of people, a true freshman in the starting lineup is a little unusual, but Chris can handle it.”

Jones said the level of competi-tion was stronger and faster than he expected.

“I was nervous at fi rst before the game” Jones said. “Starting, I

kind of expected. Th e last couple of scrimmages we had the coach had me starting.”

Nessman said playing Jessup in the Spartans’ home opener was a good test.

“We have a lot of respect for Jessup,” Nessman said. “We played them last year in the St. Mary’s tour-nament, and they really battled us last year, and they won their confer-ence.

“I know people look at them and say that they are not a division-one school, but they’ve got scholar-ship athletes that are serious about competing at a college level too, and they really came to play.”

Opening the game, center Chris Oakes slid in a successful layup, giving the Spartans a lead they never lost.

Moments later, guard Justin Graham sank a big 3-pointer,

and the Spartans took 9-0 lead.

With more than 11 minutes before halftime, guard Adrian Oliver stole the ball from War-rior guard Lu-cas Domingue, passed it down

the court to forward Jones, who fi nished the play with a dunk, giving the Spartans a 20-9 lead.

Later in the half, Robert Ow-ens hit another big 3-pointer with 5:49 left in the half, provid-ing SJSU with 33-16 lead.

Th e Spartans led the Warriors 46-31 at the end of the fi rst half.

Starting the second half, SJSU went on a 18-7 run, giv-ing them their largest lead of the game, 28 points.

Th e Warriors shot 30 percent from the fl oor, and the Spartans shot 46 percent.

In the end, the Spartans had 21 turnovers and starting guards Justin Graham and Adrian Oli-ver gave up 11 of them.

Graham said the team was a little out of control.

“I’m happy with the victory,” he said. “But there is a lot im-provement that we could have.”

Graham had a game-high 18 points.

“It helps when you’re taking a lot of layups,” Graham said. “I just try and take good shots.”

Th e Spartans dominated the glass, out reboundin g the War-riors 62-26.

In his Spartan debut, sopho-more forward Kyle Th omas came off the bench and scored 12 points and fi ve rebounds.

Men’s Basketball Schedule

Date Team Time Nov. 20 @ Washington 8 p.m. Nov. 22 @UC Riverside 2 p.m.Nov. 28 Pacifi c 1 p.m.Nov. 30 Saint Mary’s 7 p.m. Dec. 5 @ Utah Valley 2 p.m. Dec. 8 @ San Francisco 2 p.m.Dec. 9 CSU Bakersfi eld 2 p.m. Dec.18 @ UC Irvine 7 p.m. Dec. 21 @ Northern Colorado TBA Dec. 23 @ Santa Clara 7 p.m.Dec. 28 UC Irvine 7 p.m. Jan. 4 Idaho 7 p.m. Jan. 9 @Nevada 7 p.m. Jan. 11 @ Fresno State 7 p.m.Jan. 14 Boise State 7 p.m. Jan. 17 @ Hawaii 7 p.m.Jan. 21 LA Tech 7 p.m. Jan. 23 New Mexico State 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 Hawaii 7 p.m. Jan. 30 @ Utah State 7 p.m. Feb.4 @ LA Tech 8 p.m.

5Spartan DailyTuesday, November 17, 2009 [ ]SPORTS

Spartans winhome opener 89-63

By Alicia JohnsonStaff Writer

[ Joe Proudman / Spartan Daily ]

Spartan guard Chris Jones, No. 24, drives to the basket in the Spartans 89-63 win against William Jessup Monday at Walt McPher-son Court. Jones scored 13 points on 5 of 7 shooting.

spartandailysports.wordpress.com

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Check our online content: blogs, more photos, videos, polls and downloads.

“I know for a lot of people, a true fresh-man in the starting

lineup is a little unusual, but Chris can

handle it.”- George Nessman

Head coach

SJSU out rebounds William Jessup 62-26 en route to fi rst victory of the year

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And so I don’t think it will have any eff ect.”

Tomey said he probably will not coach again.

After the season, Tomey said he will return to Hawaii, where he said he lived during the late ’70s and ’80s while he coached the University of Hawaii football team.

“My plans are just get up in the morning and run Diamond Head, and just call and check and see what’s going on with the Spar-tans,” Tomey said. “I just want to take a breath of fresh air here, because when you are coaching, it is all-consuming. Th ere is no weekends. Th ere is no nights off . Th ere is no nothing.”

Tomey is coaching the Spar-tans for his fi fth season and currently has a 24-33 record at SJSU.

Th e year before Tomey arrived at SJSU, the team went 2-9 and had numerous academic prob-lems that caused the team to lose 57 scholarships throughout the past four years, Tomey said.

“He not only produced the most wins in two decades and two bowl-eligible teams, but also emphasized to all that our young men were fi rst and foremost scholar athletes,” SJSU President

Jon Whitmore stated in a press release Monday.

In his second season, Tomey turned the team around and led them to a 9-4 fi nish and a New Mexico Bowl victory.

“Th at year, it was a new day in San Jose,” said Christopher Ow-ens, an SJSU alumnus and cur-rent Atlanta Falcons cornerback. “He made, that up and we just believed in him.”

Since 2006, the Spartans have not made it to a bowl game. Th ey were bowl eligible last season, but were not chosen for a bowl game.

Tomey was a head coach for 29 seasons in three diff erent programs. He has the fi fth-most NCAA Football Bowl Subdivi-sion victories among all active head coaches.

While at SJSU, Tomey has helped six players get drafted into the NFL, three of those in the 2008 draft.

“My personal feeling is, coach Tomey is one of the best coaches I have had in my football career,” Owens said. “Th e fact he is retir-ing is all good things come to an end.”

Th e Spartans have struggled this season and have a 1-8 re-cord. Despite his team’s struggles, Tomey has said week after week he believes that he has a quality football team.

Tomey announced his retire-

ment to the team Sunday in a team meeting.

“It is kind of a surreal situa-tion,” senior linebacker Justin Cole said. “You don’t know how to feel or react. You don’t re-ally know if you could have done something more as a player or if your shortcoming as a team is to blame. You don’t really know what to say or do until after-wards.”

Senior linebacker Travis Jones said that without Tomey, he would not be playing college football.

After taking his entrance ex-ams, he said he went down to a football practice, where he met Tomey and was given a chance to walk onto the football team.

“He did not know anything about me, but three minutes,” Jones said. “He had a good feel-ing, thought I was a good person and gave me a chance. Nobody else did.”

Tomey said the joy in coach-ing was not about football.

“Some coaches say, ‘God, I want to coach. I just have to coach. I love football,’” Tomey said. “And I don’t feel that way. I like football, but I won’t say I love football. I love Travis Jones. I love Justin Cole. I love our coaches. … I love the people. It has always been about the people for me. It has never been about the game.”

Spartan Daily6[ ]NEWS Tuesday, November 17, 2009

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Nelson Lapret, a junior gen-eral engineering major, said he uses slang in his personal blog, because his peers also use the informal vernacular when communicating on social Web sites.

“You don’t want to feel like you’re a social outcast,” Lapret said. “You wanna be on the same level with everyone.”

Lapret, an international stu-dent, said he blogs about once a week and is originally from Cam-eroon, Africa. He said he feels indirect pressure from peers to have a particular style of language when communicating online.

“Th ey also use slang,” Lapret said. “So, I don’t want to feel like I’m out of place trying to use good English in the midst of people using bad language.”

He said language barriers sometimes keep him from diff er-entiating slang and proper Eng-lish.

According to an article, “What is blogging?” written by Nicole Allard on the Suite 101 Web site, blogging was born following the 1990s, and the word “blog” is short for Web log.

“In the beginning of blogs, they were mainly online diaries of people,” Allard wrote. “Others could comment on the person’s blog, and therefore communi-cate.”

According to Allad, there are no limitations as to what you can blog.

Lapret said blogs and social Web sites are deteriorating his English skills.

“Every time I see a new word used in a blog, I try to go to the dictionary to check it out,” he said. “But at the same time you’re not very sure of the language used by the people who write. You don’t have a tutor to tell you, ‘Th is is good language, this is bad language.’”

According to blog critics’ Web site Technorati, as of 2006, more than 50 million blogs existed,

and every second, two new blogs are created.

Communications studies Pro-fessor Stephanie Coopman said she and her students use PB-works, an online host of business and educational workspace, to interact with each other.

Coopman said her students’ blogging is more structured and is usually a response to questions that are issued weekly.

Coopman said she thinks students feel more accountable, because their responses are per-manent and are viewed by their classmates.

Ted Coopman, a department of television, radio, fi lm, and the-atre lecturer, stated in an e-mail that he generally fi nds blogs to be helpful to students.

“In the context of a course and if it is properly structured, most writing in any form is benefi cial,” Coopman stated. “I also believe students who blog on their own will likely improve their writing simply through the practice of regular writing.

“When you open your words up to the whole world — espe-cially your peers — you pay at-tention to what you say and how you say it.”

Linda Mitchell, director of

the SJSU Writing Center, stat-ed in an e-mail that students who blog are somewhat articu-late. Otherwise they wouldn’t blog.

“Perhaps the practice helps them communicate better,” Mitchell stated. “However, I think blogging probably doesn’t help grammar or punctuation skills.”

Lilia Preciado, a junior politi-cal science major, said she doesn’t keep a blog nor does she read them.

Preciado said she is conscious of her grammar when e-mailing her professors.

“When it comes to e-mail, I use proper English,” Preciado said. “I try to do everything the way it’s supposed to. I try to put the commas where they go ’cause I feel like I’m not actually talking to them, but it’s the only way I’m able to communicate. So I have to do it right.”

Preciado said she notices a dif-ference in the way she addresses her peers versus her teachers.

“If I send an e-mail to my friends, it’s like I’m texting them, but if I’m sending an email to a teacher, it has to be proper Eng-lish,” she said. “I can’t abbreviate or something like that.”

Blogging breaks barriersBy Alicia Johnson

Staff Writer

TOMEYFrom Page 1

Dick Tomey’s accomplishmentsSJSU football coach to lead the team to consecutive .500 or better records in Western Athletic Conference competition.

Third-best winning percentage in Western Athletic Conference throughout a 39-game span.

First coach to take SJSU to a bowl game in 16 seasons.

Sixty-two of his players at SJSU have each received a bachelor’s degree.

Academic Progress Rate annual score at SJSU has improved by more than 100 points.

He has produced fi ve teams that ranked in the NCAA top 25 at the end of a season.

1981 Western Athletic Conference and 1992 Pacifi c-10 Conference Coach of the Year.

Four of his 2009 players went to the NFL combine — more than any other WAC school.

Since 2006, 17 of his players have played in postseason all-star games.

Source: SJSU sports information department

A wise man, who also happens to have been a friend of mine, once explained to me the diff erence be-tween a recession and a depres-sion.

“A depression is when you lose your job,” he said. “A recession is when your neighbor loses his job.”

I have a job. It’s not a great job, but they throw me a modest assortment of peanuts in an en-velope every few weeks and call it a paycheck. So for me, we’re in a recession.

Th e opinions of my neighbors vary.

No matter what kind of ‘cession we’re in, though, the holiday sea-son, undeniably, is approaching.

A number of years ago, retailers would have been doing cartwheels in anticipation of the parade of guaranteed bucks that were sched-uled to start marching in — and the customers who marched with the bucks, falling for claims of signs adorned with such phrases as “10 for $10,” “Great Savings,” and “Quick check.”

Last year, a pretty harsh reality check kicked retailers’ asses, and understandably, the hand wring-ing has steadily built up this year, as an increasing number of CEOs have pulled their hair out, or found themselves in the rubber room wearing really long sleeves as they pray that consumers are willing to believe that the recession is over.

Sources have, after all, begun

to indicate so — ever since News-week blasted it all over a magazine cover.

While people who know stuff say it is apparent that everyday people feel more confi dent throw-ing around their cold hard cash again, they certainly aren’t back to their good, old-fashioned, apple pie consumerism.

Just a few months ago, I stopped in at an Outback Steakhouse for what turned out to be the most ex-pensive glass of beer this columnist has ever encountered.

Th e joint was pretty empty.I saw a tumbleweed.Honest. I did.Puzzling, since that place is nev-

er empty, and it used to pay a guy to sweep out the tumbleweeds.

People would hang out the doors and windows, or stand on the roof, shoulder to shoulder with their fellow carbons, all clutching electric, light-up tingler coasters, in hopes of one day winning a seat.

Th ose guys may be back there, I don’t know.

But until I see people walking on the ceiling and waiting for a seat at Outback Steakhouse — or my neighbor gets her job back — I still say we’re recessioning, which means I get to invent words like “recessioning.”

I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in my skepticism.

Just because a newspaper tells you something is true doesn’t nec-

essarily make you believe it.I know a number of people

who were reluctant to believe in the impending recession, even as they read about it in the paper.

As things continued downhill, they fi nally believed what they read, and now spend the majority of their time eating soda crackers in the dark — to save electricity — and get their toast by putting bread on a stick and holding it over a fi re, which doubles as a heat source.

Poor neighbors.All I have to say is, it’s going

to take a bit more than a “come on, spend your cash, it’s safe now” sticker to get them out of the dark.

Why would people be quicker to believe it’s over than they were

to believe it was approaching?Th e idea of spending money

has become an uncomfortable concept.

Just imagine venturing into the stores and hearing that dreadful Christmas music, waiting to part with the last of the dollars previ-ously stashed neatly under the mattress.

I already heard my fi rst Christ-mas carol at work. It really ham-mers my melon to hear those crap, somebody-paid-a-studio-musi-cian-to-shake-these jingle bells so soon after pumpkin carving left us.

As a child, I remember sitting in my grandmother’s dinning room as she hummed along with songs I didn’t understand.

Th e small speakers from the ra-dio on the window seal blared old Mexican music as she fl attened tor-tilla dough in the kitchen.

I don’t remember much else of those times except for the songs of my grandmother. Unfortunately,

sooner rather than later, that is all I’ll have of her.

Any family gathering happened at Grandma’s.

My summers were spent there with my cousins and siblings. We would spend afternoons around the dining room table talking about the great grandparents and uncles I never knew.

It’s funny where and when little

memories like those will fl oat to the forefront of your mind.

I was eating a carne asada bur-rito at Super Taqueria a couple weeks ago when one of those songs she used to dance to in the kitchen started to play.

I couldn’t help but stop mid-chew and just appreciate Super Taq a little bit more.

Looking back on life after eat-ing my Super Burrito that day, I can’t help but think about the little things in life.

Th ose summers spent at Grand-ma’s, playing ball on Friday nights and hanging out in the newsroom at the Spartan Daily till 2 a.m. with a great group of people.

Th ey haven’t always been ideal times, but they have been memo-rable and are all mile markers on this map of my life that I am still navigating.

And they have all led me to where I am today.

I get so caught up with life that I just forget why I am here at SJSU earning a degree.

I’m talking about how life is completely cluttered with all the things that are supposed to fi ll it.

Consequently, it prohibited my ability to enjoy those slight mo-ments in our days or persons in our life that remind us why we are here doing what we do in the fi rst place.

I’m talking about school, work,

meetings, clubs, volunteering and on and on and on.

Th ese are all things that are ex-pected of us, or even by us. Th ey aren’t bad things. In fact, most are intended to make us better.

Th ere is school, so I can have a better life than my parents were able to have.

I work, so I can go to school. I go to meetings, participate in

clubs and volunteer, because they look better on my resume, so I can get a job after I graduate.

It’s funny how I get so caught up on focusing on the future that I tend to be oblivious to the now.

It’s even funnier that it took a $5 burrito on a random weekday

morning to remind me that if it wasn’t for the simple things in life, I wouldn’t be at graduating from SJSU in May.

So as you spend your time here at SJSU, I encourage you to take a moment and remember why you’re here. It’s not to pack your sched-ule so full of activities that you forget why you were packing your schedule full of activities in the fi rst place.

When I moved three hours away to San Jose, my grandma was not happy to see her grandson go, but she was proud.

And when I leave with a diplo-ma, it’ll be just as much for her as it is for me.

How a burrito showed me what life’s all about7Spartan DailyTuesday, November 17, 2009 OPINION []

Surprise, you’re in a recession

Th e Congressional Record is kind of like a guide for what goes on in the House of Representa-tives.

I always thought that House members, 435 in total, paid close attention to what they put on record. After all, what they put down is a representation of them-selves and their constituents.

Turns out I was wrong. Several members of the house

recorded statements into the Congressional Record that were very similar, according to an ar-ticle in Th e New York Times.

Th ose statements were written by lobbyists — lobbyists hired by drug manufacturer Genentech.

Genentech estimated that 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats used some of their talking points — bipartisanship at its best.

What does it say about our elected leaders when they basi-cally become talking heads for corporations?

It says something is terribly wrong with our current system of political contributions.

Genentech made contribu-tions to several of the lawmakers that issued the statements, ac-cording to the article.

Genentech claimed there was no connection between politi-cal contributions and the state-ments made, but why else would the House members take those statements and repeat them if it wasn’t going to help them in some way?

Health care reform is one of the most crucial issues our na-tion is facing.

Th e results will shape health care for future generations, and how do lawmakers react to this monumental burden?

By reading the company line from their contributors.

Th ree Republican representa-tives, Michael Conaway of Tex-as, Lynn Jenkins of Kansas and Lee Terry of Nebraska, all said, verbatim, “I do believe the sec-tions relating to the creation of a market for biosimilair products is one area of the bill that strikes

the appropriate balance in pro-viding lower costs.”

Th ese so-called politicians ob-viously don’t care about health care.

A lawmaker’s job is to foster debate and act in the best inter-ests of his or her constituents.

At least that’s what I think. Maybe I’m just naive.

Maybe I am naive when it comes to how I think democracy is supposed to work.

Democracy is supposed to dictate legislation, but more and more it seems as if those with deep pockets are the ones with the real power.

Capitalism is driving democ-racy. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

I feel like my voting power is diluted — like it’s cheap.

Not as cheap as those politi-cians, but pretty close.

Th e United States has the strongest economy in the world and the most money in the world. Our country is far and away the wealthiest.

When it comes to ranking the best democracies — those with many individual freedoms, voter participation and transparency — the U.S. is ranked around 15th.

Our democracy is lagging be-hind our wealth. Th e U.S. is the greatest country in the world if you want to make it rich.

But if you want to feel like you are part of democracy, maybe you had better move to Sweden.

Th ose with the most money are the ones with the loudest voices — the extremely rich or corporations.

It should not be this way. Genentech should have no

more say when it comes to health care than I do.

I wish I did have as much say as Genentech.

Unfortunately, I am just not that naive.

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Murphy’s Law

Adam Murphy

Photo Editor

Joe Proudman

Holding yourself to a lesser standard

Angelo Lanham is a Spartan Daily copy editor. “Yes, I Have A Point” appears every Tuesday.

I agree with Adam Murphy’s column, “Lessons from the Hood” — that Fort Hood could have been avoided. Th e warning signs were there, but no one took the precaution of trying to understand what could possibly happen.

Th e diaper headdress, the camel — this taunting should have been recognized by the military, and action should have been taken to stop it immediately. As kids, we are told to tell someone when anyone is being bullied, including ourselves. From there, action is taken to address the problem and fi nd a solution. If this simple pro-cedure has been told to every little kid in school, then why do we still not follow it?

Are people really afraid of being called a “snitch?” Becoming a “loner?” And when the problem becomes too much for one person to handle, something extreme happens. Th is happens anywhere, not just in war. Th e Virginia Tech shooting that happened two years ago

was the result of one mentally troubled person. Th e warning signs were there — professors read his disturbing

writing, he had stalked and harassed two female students, and yet no one chose to take direct action.

Th irty-two people died.I don’t know what made Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan choose to go

on a rampage and kill 13 people, and I don’t know whether he re-grets what he did or even if it was justifi ed.

What I do know is that 13 people lost their lives. If someone saw that his mental health was not right, if someone had gotten him help, if someone understood the signs, this would not have happened.

Kirandeep DeolSJSU freshman, chemistry major

Letter to the Editor

Senior Staff WritersRyan Buchan, Kaajal Morar, Tommy Wright, Jon Xavier

Staff WritersJill Abell, Regina Aquino, Ben Cadena, Dominique Dumadaug, Ryan Fernandez, Jennifer Hadley, Alicia Johnson, Leonard Lai, Jhenene Louis, Angela Marino, My Nguyen, Samantha Rivera, Kyle Szyman-ski, Husain Sumra, Suzanne Yada

Senior Advertising StaffSamantha Inouye, Advertising DirectorSusana de Sousa, Asst. Advertising DirectorVanessa Abiva, Creative DirectorLeslie Ruckman, Asst. Creative Director

Advertising StaffJoreen Bones, Leslie Chan, Vanessa Diaz , Amy Donecho, Julie Hock, Joanna Jackson, Jennifer Jenkins, Amy Kim, Shirlene Kwan, Joanna Lin, Marti Malloy, Jenny Ngo, Angel Perez, Alison Reid, Annelie Stanley, Kathy Tran, James Yang

Staff PhotographersKirsten Aguilar, Dave Cabebe, Michelle Gachet, Chad Ziemendorf

IllustratorsJenni Curtice, Carl Evans, Evan Suarez

AdvisersRichard Craig, NewsMack Lundstrom, NewsJan Shaw, News

Opinion Page PolicyLetters to the editor may be placed in the letters to the editor box in the Spartan Daily offi ce in Dwight Bentel Hall, Room 209, sent by fax to (408) 924-3282, e-mailed to spartandaily@casa.sjsu.edu or mailed to the Spartan Daily Opinion Editor, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA 95192-0149. Letters to the editor must contain the author’s name, address, phone number, sig-nature and major. Letters become property

Senior Editorial StaffHank Drew, Executive EditorJulianne Shapiro, Managing EditorMike Anderson, Multimedia EditorScott Reyburn, Online EditorStephanie Vallejo, Op/Ed EditorAdam Murphy, Sports EditorJoey Akeley, Sports EditorMinh Pham, A & E EditorAllie Figures, Features EditorElizabeth Kang, Copy EditorSarah Kyo, Copy EditorAngelo Lanham, Copy EditorJoe Proudman, Photo EditorMauricio Garcia, Production EditorRachel Peterson, Production Editor

Spartan DailySan Jose State UniversitySan Jose, CA 95192-0149(408) 924-3281

of the Spartan Daily and may be edited for clarity, grammar, libel and length. Only letters of 300 words or less will be considered for publication. SJSU students, faculty and staff organizations may place items in Sparta Guide free of charge. Submissions must be placed in the Sparta Guide box at the Spartan Daily by noon and three days before publication. Space limitations may require light editing of material. No phoned in items will be accepted. Th ere is also a form at thespartandaily.com. Published opinions and advertise-ments do not necessarily refl ect the views of the Spartan Daily, the School of Journalism and Mass Communication or SJSU. Th e Spartan Daily is a public forum.

Kim Komenich, PhotojournalismTim Hendrick, AdvertisingTim Burke, Production ChiefTim Mitchell, DesignPat Wallraven, Business Manager

DistributionPiyush Bansal, Gurdip Chera

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Yes, I Have A Point

Angelo Lanham

Adam Murphy is a Spartan Daily sports editor. “Murphy’s Law” appears every Tuesday.

This letter is in response to “Lessons from the Hood” that was published on Nov. 10.

Spartan Daily8[ ]NEWS Tuesday, November 17, 2009Sp

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Today Tomorrow 19 Thursday 21 Saturday

Eyes on the Sky: Unveiling of New Images from NASA’s Great Observatories 12 p.m. at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library. Come listen to SJSU Profes-sor Michael Kaufman explain the science behind the images as we unveil never-before-seen multiwavelength views of a sector of deep space. For more information,e-mail lorraine.oback@sjlibrary.org.

Sustainable Food Day 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Seventh Street barbeque pits. Th e event is aimed to show an interconnection between eating healthy and being sustain-able. For more information, contact Chris-tina Baumann at cvbaumann@gmail.com.

International Youth Fellowship Sympo-sium 6:30 p.m. at Morris Dailey Audito-rium. For more information, contact Abraham at (408) 722-0312.

Th e Cool Factor 1:30 p.m. at Clark Hall in Room 118. For more information, contact Veronica Mendoza at veronica.mendoza@sjsu.edu.

Confl ict Free Living 3 p.m. at Clark Hall in Room 303. For more information, contact Veronica Mendoza at veronica.mendoza@sjsu.edu.

How to have fun and not die 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. in the Guadalupe Room in the Student Union. For more information, contact Alexander Woon at (760) 855-1136.

Th e Immigration Debate 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Mosaic Cross Cultural Center in the Student Union. For more information, contact Mosaic at (408) 924-6255.

Eyes on the Sky: Th e Universe — Yours to Discover 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Get to know the real science that inspires popular science fi ction. For more information, contact King Library at (408) 808-2397.

said. “We do have quite a bit of California-specifi c colleges.”

Moradian said the service isn’t meant to help students avoid hard classes.

“Even if you want to take a hard class, know what you’re getting yourself into,” he said.

Scott Yu, a senior business administration major, said he hasn’t used CampusBuddy or its Facebook application.

Yu said using CampusBud-dy without registering would be useful.

“As long as it’s all set up and allows easy access to view com-ments without registering, that would be awesome,” he said. “If I need to make an account it just adds another user name and password I need to keep track of.”

Moradian said gaining the grade information for the Web site can be diffi cult.

“It’s basically a drawn-out process of requesting the infor-

mation and going through legal hurdles to get access,” he said.

Moradian said that once in-formation is attained, the goal becomes to make sure it’s as accurate as possible, and then it gets uploaded to Campus-Buddy.

He said the grade informa-tion is updated as often as pos-sible.

Moradian said CampusBud-dy also off ers forums as a way for students to help each other.

“You’ll be able to hold dis-cussions on everything from grad school to internships,” he said.

Nguyen said he uses other Web sites, such as RateMyPro-fessors, once a semester, but he said that he could regularly use CampusBuddy.

Moradian said students can use CampusBuddy as an online portal to meet classmates as well as sharing school and class information.

“Th at’s one of the things we’re really focusing on,” he said.

BUDDYFrom Page 1

Recent rains have allowed SJSU groundskeepers to con-serve water while maintaining the green luster of the campus lawns, a grounds manager said.

“Th e two-and-one-half inch-es of rain last month replenished the aquifer and allowed almost the entire campus to be watered by the university’s artesian well,” said Raul Bueno, the main cam-pus grounds manager.

He said the rain also reduced water usage.

Bueno said Santa Clara County uses a well tax to charge SJSU per acre-foot of water pumped out of the well, and it is much cheaper than the cost of water from San Jose Water.

Bueno said the university is taking other steps to curb water usage.

“We’re in the process of put-ting in native, drought-resistant

plants,” he said. “Th e botany garden and many shrubs are on drippers and bubblers, so the usage of water is minimized.

“We’re also using slow-release fertilizer throughout the winter and mulching with the cut grass to save on fertilizer cost.”

Bueno said the beauty of the campus must be maintained despite the diffi cult circum-stances.

“Turf can get very thirsty in the summer,” he said. “Th ere were some dry brown spots, but they have been reseeded and patched, and the rain helped re-pair them.”

Bueno said he spent 21 years on South Campus taking care of the turf at Spartan Stadium and won awards such as the “Field of Excellence” from Sports Turf Magazine.

Bueno has traded positions with Dennis Suit, who spent 35 years at SJSU and is now in charge of Spartan Stadium.

Suit said the campus will feel the budget cuts in June 2010, and some supplies may become scarce.

He said he remembered bet-ter times on campus.

“Th e last 10 years have been good and was especially joyful in 2007, when the sesquicenten-nial was celebrated, but things change,” he said. “Students used to cut across the grass and make paths.

“Grounds crew warnings didn’t work until fi fth graders were recruited to make signs saying ‘stay off the grass,’ and these were the things that fi nally worked.”

Bueno said sprinklers are sel-dom on during the day and after it rains.

“Th e full-time sprinkler re-pairman may run sprinklers during the day to check for leaks and broken sprinklers,” he said. “Th e squirrels sometimes bite into the line and bust the

heads.”“During the winter, the

sprinklers must be activated three times a week so that they don’t stick,” Bueno said. “Wa-tering is done from 3 a. m. to 5 a.m. and that the main Tower Lawn is watered for 10 minutes in the morning.”

Junior kinesiology major Nhan Nguyen said he has seen two people, who aren’t students at SJSU, ride bicycles on top of the sprinkler heads and break them.

“It really makes me mad when they do that,” he said. “Especially since my tuition money is going toward repair-ing them.”

Nguyen said he calls the University Police Department whenever he sees the two riders around campus.

“People need to be smart about it and call it in when they see it,” he said. “Th e sprinkler will just be wasting water until

University aims to limit water wasteBy Ben Cadena

Staff Writer

u.u.edu.edu.u.u.edededudu